Pam Geller

Pamela Geller (also known as Pamela Oshry) is an anti-Islam blogger, author, and commentator.

Atlas Shrugs blog
Geller reportedly became aware of the “Islamic threat” after the 9-11 attacks, and started her blogging career by posting comments on the Little Green Footballs weblog (whose founder, Charles Johnson, now denounces her). Geller has written at Atlas Shrugs (http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com) since October 2004; the blog is a reference to the libertarian philosopher Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged.

Geller's blogs on Atlas Shrugs are primarily focused on what she perceives as the "Islamic threat" and attacking President Barack Obama. Major categories include "USA Submits to Islamic Supremacism," "Muslim in the White House?," "Amerabia: Losing America," "Obama's Birth Certificate Forgery," and many others.

In 2006, Geller published cartoons of Mohammad that inspired riots when published in a Dutch newspaper. In 2008, she identified disparities in President Obama's donor list, and has since made repeated claims that his birth certificate was false and that he is a Muslim bent on destroying America. Through her blog, Geller has led opposition to the Khalil Gibran public charter school in New York, covered the story of Rifqa Barry (who supposedly fled her home after converting to Christianity because she feared an "honor killing"), and led the charge against the Park 51 "ground zero" mosque.

Quotes
See also a list of quotes from Geller at Media Matters.


 * "Islam is the most antisemitic, genocidal ideology in the world."


 * "Obama is a third worlder and a coward. He will do nothing but beat up on our friends to appease his Islamic overlords. All this is going down while Obama plays footsie at his nuclear nonsense campfire -- sucking up to Iran's enablers while beating up our allies."


 * "It is well known that Obama allegedly was involved with a crack whore in his youth. Very seedy stuff. Why aren't [the media] pursuing that story? Find the ho, give her a show! Obama allegedly trafficked in some very deviant practices. Where's the investigation? . . . Back in the early 80's, there were only two reasons to travel to Pakistan. Jihad or drugs. I think he went for the drugs and came back with jihad."


 * "Jews refuse to get on Obama's Trains". . . "Obama is pressuring Jews to "evacuate" from parts of Israel? And what Warsaw ghetto does the muhammadan [sic] president have in mind? I think I am gonna hurl. The Jews will not go. The Jews will not submit to this century's nazis [sic] and Mansourian poser."


 * (On the passage of health care): "The moochers and the looters, the crooks and degenerates voted at 1 am this morning to rip the constitution to shreds, to rape the American people and to nationalize medicine."


 * Repeatedly accuses Obama of being a Muslim: Geller's blog contains 267 posts tagged "Muslim in the White House?"

The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America
The Post-American Presidency (Simon & Schuster, July 2010) was published with her frequent co-conspirator Robert Spencer (who runs Jihad Watch, the partner site to Atlas Shrugs). The foreword was written by former Ambassador John R. Bolton.

“American Freedom Defense Initiative”
webiste: http://freedomdefense.typepad.com

The AFDI is the umbrella organization for Stop Islamization of America, Geller’s Atlas Shrugs website, Robert Spencer’s Jihadwatch website, and Leave Islam Safely website

The group incorporated in New Hampshire as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in January, 2010; the articles of incorporation list its founders as Pam Geller, anti-Islamic Dutch MP Anders Gravers, Richard Davis, vehement Islamophobe John Joseph Jay, and frequent Geller collaborator Robert Spencer (http://www.scribd.com/doc/35847782/Articles-of-Incorporation-for-American-Freedom-Defense-Initiative)

The AFDI website lists its Board members as: Pamela Geller, Executive Director; Robert Spencer, Associate Director; James Lafferty, Pamela Hall, and Rich Davis

Stop Islamization of America
website: http://sioaonline.com/

SIOA formed in early 2010, and the name was trademarked on February 21, 2010 by Geller and Robert Spencer. It is the American branch of the “Stop Islamization of Europe” group, whose slogan is “racism is the lowest form of stupidity, but Islamophobia is the height of common sense”

SIOA was formed after Gellers set up an anti-Islam event at the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), and invited Anders Gravers, head of Stop Islamization of Europe; Gravers convinced Gellers and Spencer to start an American branch.

Spencer's Jihadwatch website includes at least Geller, Spencer, and John Joseph Jay, but the website does not provide a full list of board members.

"Leave Islam"
website: http://freedomdefense.typepad.com/leave-islam/ Leave Islam is a website that provides “resources” to persons who wish to leave their faith and fear “honor killings.”

Geller et. al. have tried running “leave Islam” bus ads in Miami-Dade County, New York, and other cities, and have filed lawsuits when they have been rejected. (see "lawsuits" section).

English Defence League
website: http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/

The EDL is a far-right British anti-Islamic group that uses street-based marches to oppose what it calls the Muslim takeover of England; those marches have often turned violent. The group has been accused of having links to football hooligans, nationalists, and fascists.

Geller has spoken positively of the group, and defended them unabashedly. Despite Geller's friend and collaborator Dutch MP Geert Wilders distancing himself from the group, Geller continues her support. The EDL also claims that Geller invited them to the September 2010 Park 51 anti-mosque rally in New York. Robert Spencer has also spoken positively of the EDL, calling them patriots who "stand for freedom."

Other Affiliated Groups
In June 2010, Geller spoke at a Bloc Identitaire rally in Paris, a group that opposes race-mixing and Islamic imperialism.

Geller also supports the nationalist/ Islamophobic German Pro-Köln party; the Flemish party Vlaams Belang (and leader Filip Dewinter, who she calls “a man of character”), and has voiced support for Sweden Democrats.

Tea Party Connections
Overview of Geller's tea party connections can be found at these links:
 * http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/10/22/geller-the-tea-party-and-islamophobia.html
 * http://teapartynationalism.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=92&Itemid=270

ResistNet Tea Party: SIOA, Atlas Shrugs, Freedom Defense Initiative are listed as “partner organizations” on the ResistNet website.

Tea Party Patriots: Geller has given anti-islam workshop at various TPP conventions

Opposition to the Park 51 "Ground Zero" Mosque
Geller has been credited as spearheading vehement opposition to the proposed Park 51 Islamic Community Center in lower Manhattan. Plans to build the mosque were first reported in the New York Times on December 8, 2009. Geller had two blogs on the subject in December, referring to it as "Mosque at Ground Zero" and calling it "a stab in the eye," but it attracted little notice elsewhere.

Geller and media outlets did not devote additional attention until May 2010, when a local community board reviewed and approved the plans. On May 6, Geller posts a blog titled “Monster Mosque Pushes Ahead in Shadow of World Trade Center Islamic Death and Destruction,” writing: “this is Islamic domination and expansionism. The location is no accident. Just as Al-Aqsa was built on top of the Temple in Jerusalem.”

The next day, her group Stop Islamization of America launches their “Campaign Offensive: Stop the 911 Mosque!”, and planned the first protest on the day after that. The narrative dictated by Geller spread like wildfire through the media, and Geller was featured on a variety of news programs.

Rifqa Barry Incident
Rifqa Barry is the 17 year old Ohio teenager who fled to Florida and claimed that her family threatened an “honor killing” for her conversion from Islam to Christianity. A report by the Florida Department of Children and Family revealed no evidence that such a threat was made.

Geller wrote http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/09/pamela-geller-interviewa-rifqa-barys-frriend-in-ohio-jamal-jivanjee-at-the-courthouse-proof-of-terro.html at length about the issue, and grasped on to it as proof of the evils of Islam. She took issue with the legal strategy of Barry's attorneys, who were looking to get Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) that would allow the young woman to stay in the U.S. Geller wanted Barry’s attorneys to take a much more aggressive approach,attacking Islam directly by applying for asylum based on an alleged fear of persecution for her conversion; Geller called the parents’ lawyers “CAIR-appointed.”

Geller is being sued by Omar Tarazi, who represented Rifqa Bary’s parents, for misrepresentation. According to the Orlando Sentinel: “Oshry published web posts that falsely said Tarazi had joined Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization, and received payments from " 'criminal' organizations with 'ties' to terrorists," according to the suit.”

Funding?
As stated below, Geller has significant personal finances from her ex-husband. Whether her website and other activties are bankrolled by other orgnizations is unknown.


 * Atlas Shrugs solicits advertisers (ad rates )


 * Large Amazon.com ads regularly appear on Atlas Shrugs website, but Geller also attacks Amazon for “norming barbarity” by selling the “jihad chic” keffiyeh scarf. An Amazon search tool is also embedded in toolbar


 * As of January 2011, current toolbar ads (besides self-promotion) include:
 * www.dancingfromgenesis.com website (“the truth about our beginning”)
 * Jamie Glazov, Showdown With Evil: Our Struggle Against Tyranny and Terror, Mantua Books, 2010.
 * Oleg Atbashian, Shakedown Socialism, Green Leaf Press, 2010.
 * Robert Cook, Cooch (a novel), Royal Wulff Publishing, 2010.
 * DVD from 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference
 * Loren Steffy, Drowning in Oil: BP and the Reckless Pursuit of Profit, McGraw-Hill, 2010.
 * Wafa Sultan, A God Who Hates, St. Martin’s Press, 2009.
 * Law Offices of David Yerushalmi, P.C. (discussed in “People” section)

Personal
Born in 1958, Geller grew up in Hewlett Harbor, Long Island. Her father Reuben owned a textile mill in Brooklyn. Geller grew up with three sisters and two parents in an ethnically Jewish household. In 1990, Geller married Long Island car dealer Michael H. Oshry (and took his surname). She divorced Oshry in 2007 and was awarded a $4 million divorce settlement; she also received a portion of the $2 million sale of the Hewlett Harbor home she jointly owned with her husband. Geller's ex-husband Michael Oshry died in 2008, and her daughters got $5 million from his life insurance policy. Anne Barnard and Alan Feuer, "Outraged, and Outrageous", The New York Times, October 8, 2010.

Employment
Geller worked throughout the 1980s at New York Daily News as a financial analyst, and in the advertising and marketing departments. She was the associate publisher of the New York Observer for five years, from 1989-1994. Geller quit in 1994 to stay home with daughters.

Link to Car-Scam and Murders?
In 2007, the New York Post reported that Geller was part-owner of Universal Auto World, a Long Island car dealership owned by her ex-husband Michael Oshry. The dealership was involved in a car purchasing scheme that allowed drug dealers and gang members to purchase luxury cars without recording their names on vehicle registrations, which may have resulted in the murders of two Brooklyn policemen and a car salesman. There appears to be little else linking her to the scam and murders besides the isolated 2007 article.